The subject matter herein relates generally to electrical bridge devices that extend between electrical devices and provide electrical conductive paths that electrically connect the electrical devices.
Various electrical applications require an electrical connection between two parallel printed circuit boards (or other electrical devices). Known bridge devices for electrically connecting the circuit boards include electrical cable assemblies, stackable mezzanine connectors, bridging mid-planes coupled between board-to-board connectors mounted on the circuit boards, and bridging circuit boards extending between card edge connectors mounted on the circuit boards. These known bridge devices have several issues. For example, the cable assemblies are generally costly, especially for cable assemblies that provide relatively high data transfer rates between the circuit boards. The other known bridge devices generally suffer from mechanical alignment challenges due to tolerance stackup. For example, in an electrical system with multiple components that couple together, such as a server, the accumulated variation allowed by specified tolerances and dimensions may result in a gap distance between the two circuit boards that is difficult to accurately predict for sizing and positioning the bridge device. Due to tolerance stackup, the known bridge devices may not properly align with and/or connect to both circuit boards. The misalignment may cause reduced electrical performance, if not a complete lack of performance, increased forces applied to the bridge device and/or the connectors on the circuit boards, and/or damage to one or more of the electrical components.
A need remains for an electrical bridge device that is relatively low cost and able to accommodate variations attributable to tolerance stackup.